Editing Diners of Amber (section)

==='''Castle Arden'''===

[[File:AT-Castle Arden.jpg]]

Now the time comes for me to say a few mean things about Julian. Alright. I trust him least of all my kin. There, I said it. The discovery of Castle Arden is a case in point.

This castle is Julian's headquarters in Arden. Until recently it was not open to his brothers. Not exactly off limits, just secretive and not spoken about often outside the secret circles of the Arden Guard. We all had seen various massive ranger encampments and fancy tents and giant log structures forts and manors but a frigging stone and stained glass castle?  Even Benedict was unaware of this castle's actual size till it turned up in the deck. That takes doing. Look at the damn thing. Its a bloody cathedral in a open piece of parkland. And no one mentioned it? Really????

He raised his son Duncan there, never letting on that he had spawned.

Oberon knew about it and kept it's secret but Random is a very different kind of king. He put a trump of the place right there in the deck. So much for secrecy, eh, Jules?

It is a military establishment of the first order and one of Amber's last lines of defense. When Corwin and I came to Amber with a few friends a while back we totally missed the place. From there the defense of the land route and the shadow trails is administrated.

A word to the wise. The point the trump takes you is at least as well guarded as the courtyard of Castle Amber, but the guards here want official travel passes exposed upon arrival or metal will fly. Ask Julian if you can drop by before you attempt to trump in. Julian will not be responsible for kinsman who die at his doorstep because they did not understand the need for security.


'<span style=color:darkgreen>Addendum

<span style=color:darkgreen>Julian and I have made some peace, as have many of my siblings, since Patternfall. So let me temper my comment on Castle Arden. I do understand the need for security.

<span style=color:darkgreen>I do check my cup when he hands me a drink, though. I trust he won't poison me, but I don't think he is beyond putting a scorpion in it or a freeze-stone. Haha... Who knew he had a sense of humor? I think its a mark of the success of Random's reign that we elders are starting to be comfortable enough to play practical jokes on each other again.

*<span style=color:purple>Commentary by Benedict-Bleys, I knew very well the size, location and style of Castle Arden.  I was part of the group that originally constructed it. Its a Jewel of Judgment construct that Oberon laid the cornerstone for himself. Part of the effect of the place is to cause people who visit it to soon start forgetting the details of the place.  Not to put a fine knife in your chest over it, Oberon did not want you, Eric, Corwin, Borlak, or Gerard to know too much bout the place so none of you were invited to attend ceremonies there.  in a way, Julian was entrusted with Adren, and its castle, because Oberon knew that Julian's ambition led elsewhere. Had you claimed the throne, and made it stick, I am sure you would have learned of the place.  but you did not.  Random did.  It was his call to put the trump in the deck.     </span>